Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Review

Ten years ago, Halo: Combat Evolvedhelped shape the future of first-person shooters. Bungie’s launch title for the
original Xbox has seen Halo develop into one of the most successful video game
franchises there is today. With the ten year anniversary just passed, does the
remake of one of the most successful games of all time still create the same
wow factor as it did back then?

As the screen loads up and that
all familiar blue loading font works its way across the screen, the sense of
nostalgia is incredible. The main menu looks no different than its predecessor’s,
though it comes with the added bonuses of a firefight and multiplayer mode.
Putting these to a side for a moment, I eagerly throw myself into the campaign
mode to see how dramatically a time passage of ten years is about to alter my
playing experience.

First impressions are grand.
The guy in front of me is telling me to look from left to right, and from
looking at the different points I catch my first glimpses of new surroundings.
343 Studios have done a brilliant job of re-mastering the visuals, and due to
the new game engine in the campaign, a quick press of the back button allows
you to switch back and forth between the original graphics and the re-mastered
ones. This allows for constant comparisons throughout the campaign which will
see you finding a beautiful looking landscape, hitting the back
button to travel back ten years, and then again to give yourself a comparison
of how much better the visuals in this game look.

Unfortunately, the graphics can
take a turn for the worse, and I did sometimes find myself feeling almost
alienated due to the change of the color schemes in the game. Maybe this is me
being a cynical bastard, but I’m sure the UNSC wouldn’t have gone through the
effort to hand paint so many of the frames in The Pillar of Autumn a shade of bumblebee
yellow. It may be a petty thing to pick up on, but I found myself surprised at
how slight alterations to something as simple as a ship’s color scheme can
take me out of my comfort zone.

The sounds in the game
have been dynamically improved and the changes are extremely noticeable and
impressive. Through the re-mastering of the game’s original soundtrack to the
alterations to sound effects from weapons and explosions, everything sounds flawless.
The shotgun now sounds like a small explosion coming from your hands, and the
grenades sound like nothing short of an explosion from a cinematic masterpiece. It’s
also worth adding that the game is now fully supported by 5.1 surround sound;
you will feel a lot closer experiencing this game properly in comparison to the
original.

As well as the game’s support of 3D visuals and Kinect, 343 have made a reasonable amount of
changes in order to make your replay of the original Halo experience better
than ever before. With the addition of the Kinect, you’re allowed to scan and analyze
items, allowing you to view them up close from different angles in an almost
theater-mode kind of fashion. A limited use of the Kinect, but a cool feature
nevertheless.

Moving onto the multiplayer, I
was somewhat disappointed. Having speculated on previous rumors of the flood
being available in the game’s firefight mode, I was saddened to see their absence,
and also the lack of choice for maps available. Adding to this disappointment
is that CEA’s multiplayer is effectively
nothing more than a Halo: Reach add-on.
Clicking on the multiplayer option from the main menu sends you into a brief
wait, and then transports you to a lobby no different than the one in Reach. CEA comes bundled with six
revamped maps from the original game. The multiplayer mode also switches from
the campaign’s game engine and reverts back to the engine used in Reach. Being a fan of Halo: Reach, this isn’t something that
bothered me too much, but I can’t help but think that the inclusion of a new
engine would have helped shape the way forward for a new multiplayer experience,
which in return could have shaped possibilities for
the upcoming Halo 4.

Overall, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversaryis a must-have for fans of the Halo series in general. If for some reason
you never had chance to play the original game, then Anniversary offers newcomers a brilliant insight into the game that
helped shape the Halo games into what they are today. If, however, you were
expecting a completely new gaming experience like anything never before, or
something to fill the time until the launch of Halo 4, then perhaps it might be
worth finding something else to bide the time. Whilst Anniversary opens up a brilliant door to those who might be new to
the series and will almost certainly satisfy die-hard fans, it’s unarguable
that its main point of focus is the campaign. Even with the inclusion of online
two-player co-op, its longevity is questionable, especially if you’re hoping it
will keep you busy for months to come. With a retail price of £35 ($40), bear in mind
that once you’re done with the campaign, there’s only a short firefight mode
and six multiplayer maps to keep you busy.